my new 8800gt is causing BSOD?

[praesto]

Alright, so here is my issue. Sometimes, completely occasionally, out of nowhere, well out of somewhere actually, I get a half-sec flash of BSOD on my screen before the computer restarts by itself. These happen when I ENTER a game. As soon as the game starts loading, BOOM BSOD and instant restart, I barely get to notice the BSOD. Then windows starts up and every time this has happened, I've gotten one of those standard microsoft windows caused a fatal error or something blabla, send report or not?


These are the files which were listed in the error report:
sysdata.xml
Mini112007-01

I have no clue what the purpose of those files are.

This issue started happening as I have been playing games with my new 8800gt. It is not linked to overclocking, as running the 8800gt with standard clocks still leads to the BSOD+restart.


Now to be honest with you, I am not VERY concerned about this matter. Since the BSOD ''only'' appears when I try to start up a game, it's tolerable. And as I mentioned in the beginning, it happens occasionally, it doesn't happen every time I try to start up a game, by no means. But surely something is....wrong. One way or another.

FYI, I've played crysis continouosly for god knows how long, and there has been zero issues, nor any issues with other games. Could this possibly be driver-related? I have a hard time believing that drivers could be the cause of something as terrible as a BSOD+ restart .

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: praesto
Now to be honest with you, I am not VERY concerned about this matter. Since the BSOD ''only'' appears when I try to start up a game, it's tolerable. And as I mentioned in the beginning, it happens occasionally, it doesn't happen every time I try to start up a game, by no means. But surely something is....wrong. One way or another.

FYI, I've played crysis continouosly for god knows how long, and there has been zero issues, nor any issues with other games. Could this possibly be driver-related?

It could be a PSU issue. When the current ramps up, the PC may crash; if not, the PSU will sustain the load (slowly damaging itself in the process). Just a guess. What model, voltage, and amperage of PSU do you have? The label is generally given on the side.

But do run memtest86 before swapping PSU's -- could be bad RAM instead?

EDIT: Also make sure your motherboard, video, and sound drivers are up-to-date.

I have a hard time believing that drivers could be the cause of something as terrible as a BSOD+ restart .

Drivers (among other things) can definitely cause a BSOD, and newer versions of Windows will automatically reboot your computer (after creating a minidump of kernel memory) when a BSOD occurs, so this is actually no different from other people's BSOD's.

 

[praesto]

My power supply is a one month old corsair vx550. I will try to run memtest86. All the drivers, maybe except for the video card drivers are up to date. Currently using forceware 169.04.

 

[Dkcode]

Go into your system properties (Windows key + Pause/Break).
Click Advanced tab
Click settings under "Start up and recovery"
Under "System failure" uncheck "Automatically restart"

XP by default is set to automatically reboot your machine during a "bug check" or BSOD for the unashamed.
Anyway load your game and post the message the BSOD gives.

 

[praesto]

I've been trying to load games quite a few times today, the error will not reproduce. Obviusly it happens occasionally. I'm not sure if I should be happy about that or not lol. Q.o

The memory modules were fine.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Try uninstalling your video drivers completely (booting-up in safe mood and using driver cleaner pro) then reinstalling.

 

[praesto]

I think I will give it a try. Still trying to reproduce the error

 

[praesto]

Alright I got a BSOD this time just as I clicked on a link to a movie trailer on the internet. This is what I could gather from the screen:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

***STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000016, 0x0000001C, 0x00000000, 0x804FA11E)


Not much else to gather :S, any clue folks?

Still haven't tried another display driver. Unless you guys can gather something from this information, I will install a new display driver asap.

 

[NXIL]

Hi Praseto,

new vid card >> new drivers....I think the problem is there.

Here is someone who had a similar problem:

http://icrontic.com/forum/arch...index.php/t-55825.html

Did you use Driver Cleaner Pro to get rid of all traces of the old, previous drivers?

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/...ideo-card-drivers.html

Proper Video card driver install.

* Download new drivers to desk top. (Do not install yet)
* Download Driver Cleaner Pro. http://www.majorgeeks.com/Driver_Cle...nal_d3214.html
* UnInstall old drivers - Rt click desktop - Properties / settings / advanced / adaptor / properties / driver.
* Unplug internet.
* Reboot
* Cancel out of auto install programs that will pop up.
* Run Driver Cleaner Pro for your driver set.
* Reboot
* Cancel out of auto install programs that will pop up.
* Install new drivers.
* Reboot

Since your PC goes south when you try to click on a video link, makes sense that the issue is in the video software somewhere....

HTH

NXIL

 

[praesto]

I will try a proper install of new drivers. Wish me luck

 

[NXIL]

Dear P,

wishing you good luck.

And, one more thing:

http://www.smartcomputing.com/...px?guid=&ErrorID=22210

Solution:

The minidump error is sometimes associated with an outdated video driver (a program that facilitates communication between a hardware component and the rest of the system), so one potential solution is to download a driver update for the video card. You can get one by visiting the Support or Downloads area of the card manufacturer?s Web site. An updated driver may take care of the problem, but regardless of whether it does, we also recommend downloading the WinXP patch that Microsoft released to combat memory dump problems.

You can get the update by visiting www.microsoft.com/downloads/details
and clicking Download in the upper-right section of the page. Next, you should access the Windows Update site and install WinXP SP1a from the list of critical updates.

Just for good measure, you should take a moment to purge your system of the minidump and Sysdata.xml files by deleting them from the C:/DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS and C:/WINDOWS folders, respectively. You can restart the computer when the files are gone.


And more: good luck,

NXIL

 

[praesto]

Thank you for taking time to help me NXIL. I encountered another BSOD after thoroughly installing the 169.09 forceware drivers. I am going to try the older 169.02's now. This time the BSOD appeared just as I opened a movie with VLC player. I did actually get to see a half second of the movie before the BSOD appeared. I still haven't encountered it under..normal circumstances so to speak, which seems to indicate that the issue is isolated. That would be a good thing.

Since I have SP2 installed, the minidump fix is already installed. I will delete the current sysdata.xml and minidump files.

 

[NXIL]

Well, that is a bummer....sorry that did not work.



Hmm, at this point, were it my machine, I would consider a complete Windows reinstall, but, I usually do that anyway with a video card upgrade.

Are you familiar with the layered windows install, i.e. go from most basic/deepest level of OS to most superficial?

HTH,

And again, good luck, for real this time,

NXIL


?Layering? the software is based on its importance and permanence.

1) Windows with services packs

2) Chipset driver

3) Dual core driver

4) Direct X (Microsoft.com)

5) Video driver

6) Sound card or onboard sound driver

7) USB driver (if needed?included in SP2)

8) Network card drivers (if not included in chipset driver above)

a) Wireless card driver

9) Keyboard, mouse

10) Windows security patches and updates

11) Microsoft Office and patches

12) After this, begin with most important applications, ones least likely to be removed, continuing on to more likely.

13) End with Antivirus/antispyware applications and their updates.

 

[praesto]

Well I guess you have layed it all out for me . I will take it step by step and hopefully survive the process. Thanks for taking all the time!

 

[NXIL]

Hi Praesto,

I do think the 169.02 drivers are best: 31 OCT 2007:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.02.html

since the 169.09 are beta drivers....

How about your chipset and Direct X drivers--do you know where to get the most current WHQL versions of those?

HTH

NXIL

Here is the Nov 2007 Direct X:

http://www.microsoft.com/downl...77D17B8&displaylang=en

I prefer getting chipset drivers from either Intel or nVidia direct, rather than the mobo maker, as the mobo makers lag behind by several months....

 

[praesto]

I never realised intel actually were the manufactureres of my p965 asus board chipset, lol , thanks for telling me. I am currently using the 169.02 drivers. Today, I have had zero BSODS. Whether it is because I switched to the 169.02's today or whether I removed nhancer from my system, I do not know. Maybe it is coincidence. I will have to wait and see. My directx drivers are the most recent, the chipset on the other hand...better check that out at intel.

 

[NXIL]

Hi--

glad that you are making progress.

nHancer: just looked that up: I think that would be something I would not use, just for stability reasons--video drivers are complex enough--I do not have any experience with it, but, it would not surprise me if that program was having trouble with a brand new set of video drivers.

Chipset driver: I wouldn't change it--unless you do a complete reinstall, no reason to, and, for whatever reason, it could destabilize things further. Ain't broke: can't fix it, can only introduce some new issue.

Good luck!

NXIL